RADIANT HEAT AND ITS RELATIONS. 233 



■would ask, put the soul into this telegraphic body ? Who 

 snatched from heaven the fire that flashes along the line ? 

 This, I am bound to say, was done by two men, the one a 

 dweller in Italy, 1 the other a dweller in England, and, there- 

 fore, not a thousand miles distant from the spot where I 

 now stand, 2 who never in their inquiries consciously set a 

 practical object before them — whose only stimulus w T as 

 the fascination which draws the climber to a never-trodden 

 peak, and would have made Caesar quit his victories to 

 seek the sources of the Nile. That the knowledge brought 

 us by those prophets, priests, and kings of science, is what 

 the world calls useful knowledge, the triumphant applica- 

 tion of their discoveries proves. But science has another 

 function to fulfil, in the storing and the training of the hu- 

 man mind ; and I would base my appeal to you on the 

 poor specimen which has been brought before you this 

 evening, whether any system of education at the present 

 day can be deemed even approximately complete in which 

 the knowledge of Nature is neglected or ignored. 



i Volta. 2 Faraday. 



